We would like to thank Andrea Portbury and Davin Townley-Tilson for critical reading of the manuscript and the NIH (grant # R01HL061656) for funding support.

NOTE: All experiments were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
1. Excise the Aortic Valve
<ol>
	<li>Using an approved euthanasia technique for the embryonic stage of interest, euthanize a pregnant mouse with pups at the desired embryonic day (E) of development.</li>
	<li>Use 70% ethanol to sterilize the abdomen of the pregnant female. Lift the skin and muscle of the lower abdomen up and away from the internal organs,...

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The ability to quantify protein levels in early embryonic mouse and chick cardiac valve regions provides an additional tool for understanding the critical cellular signaling events for valve development. Our protocol described herein does not differ greatly from standard protein isolation procedures. However, by modifying some key steps, we have successfully obtained phosphorylated proteins from extremely small sample sizes. To achieve this outcome, the following steps are of particular importance. To ensure that quality...

Being able to identify and quantify protein expression levels is a standard technique for animal- and cell-based experiments. However, despite a long-standing interest in early embryonic cardiac valve development, evaluating protein expression in this specific tissue during development is currently limited to immunohistochemistry in both the chick and mouse1,2. Part of the difficulty of quantifying protein expression in the developing valves of most model organisms (e.g., chick and mouse) is the small size of the valves, which limits the quantity of protein that can be obtained. Thus, for quantitative analyses, researchers typically rely on RNA extraction and amplification for subsequent quantitative PCR or microarray analysis2-5. However, RNA and protein expression levels are not wholly correlative6, so focusing on RNA expression cannot provide a rigorous account of the numerous changes that occur in any given signaling pathway at various times during developments. Based on this limit in the currently available methodology, the goal of this procedure was to develop a protocol for reliably obtaining sufficient amounts of protein from the developing embryonic mouse cardiac valve regions for quantitative analysis of changes that occur in various signaling pathways that are important in the maturation of this tissue.
Embryonic valves are already commonly dissected from mice for RNA isolation and subsequent gene expression analysis2-5. However, these studies have been limited to using gene expression as a read-out of signaling pathway activation, which does not allow the detection of detect post-translational protein modifications that may affect downstream signaling. Using the RNA isolation techniques as a starting point, we began with dissecting the regions of interest. Because our interest was detecting phosphorylated proteins that were indicative of signaling pathway activity during a specific period of aortic valve development (E13.5-14.5), we performed all dissections in phosphate-free Tris buffer and collected the valves in a Tris-based lysis buffer with phosphatase and protease inhibitors. In our specific case, only the aortic valve regions were collected, but the pulmonary valve region could easily be obtained at the same time. The valve regions were then homogenized and combined with a sample buffer that is currently used to study protein expression in adult cardiac valves7. By using small sample volumes (e.g., 2 &#956;l) and pooling valve regions from embryos with the same genotype, we were able to detect phosphorylated and nonphosphorylated proteins at embryonic day 13.5 8. Because the valve regions can be frozen and stored in lysis buffer, embryos can be genotyped if needed before pooling.
This technique broadens the set of tools that are available for evaluating cell signaling pathways during development and provides a quantitative compliment to immunohistochemistry, specifically for the developing cardiac valves. This technique should be of benefit not only to developmental cardiologists but also to all developmental biologists who work with early stage embryos are interested in regions that contain limited tissue.

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="972">
	<tbody>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">Name of Reagent/ Equipment</td>
			<td style="width:125px;">Company</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">Catalog Number</td>
			<td style="width:512px;">Comments/Description</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">Timed-pregnant mouse</td>
			<td style="width:125px;"></td>
			<td style="width:119px;"></td>
			<td>To be dissected at the embryonic stage of interest</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">Stereoscopic microscope</td>
			<td style="width:125px;">Nikon</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">SMZ645</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">0.1 M Tris, pH 7.6</td>
			<td style="width:125px;"></td>
			<td style="width:119px;"></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">Microscissors</td>
			<td style="width:125px;">Fine Science Tools</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">15003-08</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">Fine forceps, #5</td>
			<td style="width:125px;">Fine Science Tools</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">11251-30</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">Dissecting needle holders</td>
			<td style="width:125px;">Ted Pella Inc.</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">13560</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">Dissecting needles</td>
			<td style="width:125px;">Ted Pella Inc.</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">13561-10</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">Micropipette, 20 &#956;l, with tips</td>
			<td style="width:125px;"></td>
			<td style="width:119px;"></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">Lysis buffer</td>
			<td style="width:125px;"></td>
			<td style="width:119px;"></td>
			<td>50 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.5, 150 mM NaCl, 5 mM EDTA, 1% Triton</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">PhosSTOP</td>
			<td style="width:125px;">Roche</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">4906845001</td>
			<td>Add 1 tablet to 10 ml lysis buffer</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">TissueLyser LT</td>
			<td style="width:125px;">Qiagen</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">85600</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">Stainless steel beads</td>
			<td style="width:125px;">Qiagen</td>
			<td align="right">69989</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">Microcentrifuge</td>
			<td style="width:125px;"></td>
			<td style="width:119px;"></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

protein isolation from the developing embryonic mouse heart valve region

Western blot analysis is a commonly employed technique for detecting and quantifying protein levels. However, for small tissue samples, this analysis method may not be sufficiently sensitive to detect a protein of interest. To overcome these difficulties, we examined protocols for obtaining protein from adult human cardiac valves and modified these protocols for the developing early embryonic mouse counterparts. In brief, the mouse embryonic aortic valve regions, including the aortic valve and surrounding aortic wall, are collected in the minimal possible volume of a Tris-based lysis buffer with protease inhibitors. If required based on the breeding strategy, embryos are genotyped prior to pooling four embryonic aortic valve regions for homogenization. After homogenization, an SDS-based sample buffer is used to denature the sample for running on an SDS-PAGE gel and subsequent western blot analysis. Although the protein concentration remains too low to quantify using spectrophotometric protein quantification assays and have sample remaining for subsequent analyses, this technique can be used to successfully detect and semi-quantify phosphorylated proteins via western blot from pooled samples of four embryonic day 13.5 mouse aortic valve regions, each of which yields approximately 1 &#956;g of protein. This technique will be of benefit for studying cell signaling pathway activation and protein expression levels during early embryonic mouse valve development.

Using this preparation technique, we were able to detect phosphorylated Smad1,5,8 (pSmad) in single aortic valve regions from E13.5 embryos. As shown in Figure 1A, the protein isolated from even a single valve region is sufficient to detect a faint pSmad band. Signal intensity increases proportionately to the number of valve regions that are pooled. Importantly, the pSmad/&#946;-actin ratio remains nearly constant across the different sample sizes (Figure 1C). Due to the low l...

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Protein Isolation from the Developing Embryonic Mouse Heart Valve Region

The analysis of protein expression in young embryonic mouse valves has been hampered by the limited tissue available. This manuscript provides a protocol for preparing protein from developing embryonic mouse valve regions for western blot analysis.

Western blot analysis is a commonly employed technique for detecting and quantifying protein levels. However, for small tissue samples, this analysis ...

protein-isolation-from-developing-embryonic-mouse-heart-valve

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9.2K visualizações.  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The analysis of protein expression in young embryonic mouse valves has been hampered by the limited tissue available. This manuscript provides a protocol for preparing protein from developing embryonic mouse valve regions for western blot analysis.